Aaya and Olimani walked beside continuum soldiers. Aaya would have been weary of the soldiers if they weren’t the light touched and tied to the warders she was looking for. Instead, the choice of their escorts put her at ease but her young protégé wasn’t so pleased with their situation and kept his sword at hand.

  They led them to the innards of the ship and straight to its heart. One of the soldiers, the female one, stepped in front and touched a finger to the panel next to the door. The door swished open.

  The first thing Aaya noted was the sweet, almost acrid smell of anathema in the air. Next her eyes caught the gently glowing glyphs on the walls. And in the middle of it all were two old, almost obsolete med pods.

  “What is this?” Olimani hissed.

  “The warders are in the med pods.” Needles replied in a tense voice.

  Aaya was old and had seen a lot in her days. That included similar experiments done to ascended of all ages. But to do this to warders? To the Light’s chosen? That was unheard of.

  “Seal this room. No one comes in or goes out.” Aaya ordered in a stern voice.

  “Yes arbiter.” Needles looked behind and nodded.

  Aaya heard the door shut behind her and moved to the pods. “What is this?” She asked.

  “This is me. Ghost.” Ghost voice calmly replied and in an annoyed voice added “It took you arbiter longer than expected.”

  Olimani stepped besides Aaya and asked “Who and what are we addressing?”

  “As I said, I am Ghost. An adjudicator.”

  “A ripple. Nonsense!” Olimani snapped.

  Aaya shot Olimani a look and trained her gaze at the pods “Apologies adjudicator. May we approach?”

  “Yes.” Ghost replied with a smile in his voice and instructed “Seven would you please assist them. We should introduce the warders to the arbiters.”

  Aaya held up a hand “No. We would like to observe first.” Aaya looked back at the soldiers in the null room and in a pointed tone added “Without any help.”

  “Very well, come on in.”

  The arbiters moved to the pods and looked inside. Two naked warders floated inside the containers. One was smiling and the other was scowling. They placed their hands on the pods.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Ash jumped back and scampered using his speed shards.

  “Really? You punched it?” Sheetal laughed.

  “Shut up.” Ash snapped and rung out his hand looking at the ice man thing in front of him.

  Sheetal sighed floating over the remains of three other ice elementals “Ash, you I can crush it for you if you want.”

  The ice elemental brought his hand down to squish Ash, but he wasn’t there anymore. He was standing five feet away looking at Sheetal.

  “Will you stop?”

  “What are you trying to do?” Sheetal asked.

  “Trying to land a superman punch with my speed, power, and strength shards.” Ash answered.

  “It’s not working.”

  “Thank you captain obvious.” Ash moved again dodging the next strike with ease.

  Sheetal noted that he hadn’t even taken his eyes off her. She relaxed and asked “Fine. Why is it not working?”

  “I mistimed my punch because someone keep crushing everything around her.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  “It’s the equivalent of spamming the low kick in MK.”

  Sheetal gave Ash an offended look “Oh you didn’t.”

  Ash giggled and charged the ice creature. One moment he was standing in front of the large goliath, the next he was in the air punching the elemental in the chest.

  Thud!

  The ice elemental rocked back with Ash somehow perched on its chest. They stayed like that for a long moment without either of them moving.

  Ash frowned and looked up at the sky “Ghost?”

  A chuckle rumbled through the world “Sorry couldn’t resist.”

  Ash glared at the sky “I will…”

  Crunch.

  The ice creature underneath Ash crumbled into ice and snow, and Ash fell through.

  Sheetal snorted.

  Ash spat out the frozen water and climbed out of the pile scowling. He stomped away. Every step changing his clothes from leather pants and blue shirt to tank top and a thigh high floral skirt.

  “Where are you going?” Sheetal laughed.

  “Home.”

  “Ash?”

  “No, you both are ganging up on me.”

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Olimani retracted his hand as if it had been burned and turned to Aaya “They are blue.”

  Aaya slowly lifted her hand from the pod and looked at the beautiful blue skinned woman inside “Yes.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Aaya nodded “We need answers. Go get them. And Olimani, be nice. They are in the warder’s party. And have been touched by the light. They are not enemies.”

  Olimani’s lips thinned and he sheathed his sword “Yes, lady Aaya.”

  Aaya moved to leave and Aaya placed her hand on the pod again.

  Sheetal was now sitting on beach sipping on a cocktail.

  An older man in shorts and a beach shirt sat alongside her looking down at a hollow projection.

  “So, there are five people in a party. The one in the front ahead is a tank. He is supposed to take the damage, and dish it out to keep the agro. The one in the back is ranged attacker. Could be an archer or a mage. The one in the middle is a healer.”

  Sheetal explained to Ghost while Ash fixed his short tube top that was a just a broad line on his thin chest.

  “What about the other two.” Ghost pointed at the still image of the cartoonish characters in front of him.

  “The one on the left is a DPS.”

  “Deepeeee…what?’

  Ash giggled “No, that’s something else.”

  Sheetal quickly continued before Ash could derail the conversation “A DPS or damage per second or the warrior class are faster than the tank. They rush in and frag the ads… I mean the enemy and start piling damage on the main boss.”

  “Boss.” Ghost stated and nodded.

  “The last in is the assassin or a rogue class. They sneak around, disappearing in the background and attack the enemy at critical moments, eliminating them before they even know that a sneak is near them.”

  “And, she wants me to be that.” Ash complained while looking out of the window.

  Ghost cleared his throat “That…”

  “It’s silly, nerdy, and dumb.” Ash stated.

  “Kid, will you let me handle this?” Ash gave Ghost an annoyed look but nodded begrudgingly.

  Ghost exhaled “And by that I suppose you plan to be a… ranged class?”

  “Yes.” Sheetal nodded.

  Ghost grimaced “And this class, by looks of that old bearded man standing over there doesn’t use armour or any other weapons?”

  “Yes.”

  “Lady warder, I hate to agree with Ash, but this is…” Ghost looked at Ash with pain reflected on his face and agreed “Dumb.”

  “No, it isn’t. How? Hold on.” Sheetal held up her hand “Let me explain. Look, after I tapped into my body, I realised I could do complex calculations in an instant. And that means I can create what you call external effects, easily. That means I sling a lot of magic around. So, obviously I should be in the back doing that. And Ash with his speed, and that thing he does where he disappears and appears, and with his prior experience should be sneaking around fragging people.”

  Ash rolled his eyes “She, you’ve seen the continuum. They all have guns. Why would they all have guns and rifle if they needed so specialise like your nerdy computer game.”

  “It’s called an MMO.”

  “It’s called, geeky.”

  “You say that if it is bad thing.”

  Ash and Sheetal stared at each other for a moment. Ghost knew by the long stare the two directed at each other that they were continuing their argument internally. The two warders didn’t use words when they did that. As they explained, they used impressions, feeling and what Ghost could only quantify as rapid data dumps to get their thoughts across. It both fascinated and unnerved him. The two were linked far beyond the quantum levels and he had no way to decode their way of communicating. And even becoming a ripple hadn’t helped that.

  Ghost reclined on his beach chair and cleared his throat “Warders, perhaps let me clarify some things?”

  Ash looked away in annoyance and Sheetal nodded.

  “You are not wrong Sheetal. We do specialise in our fields. Needles is a specialist medic. She uses her cybernetic hand to quickly heal and get people stabilised. She also can well shoot a wave of potentiality for a largescale healing effect.”

  Sheetal nodded with a triumphant grin.

  “But she can also turn that same effect into a rapid distorted burst that can break down every cell in a body. We are in a warzone, lady warder. Specialising to be just a healer is courting disaster.”

  Sheetal frowned.

  Ghost pointed at the tank in the stilled holographic projection and continued “Also, you are young warders. And you both have different personalities. Ash will never stay back. It’s not in his nature. He will lead from the front.”

  Ghost turned to Sheetal “You Sheetal, you think you are different, but you are not. You will rush into battle to save your brother when he inevitably bites off more than he can chew. That means, you will need to be a tank and, a ranged magic dealer?”

  Sheetal bit her lip and gave Ash an accusing look.

  “Hey, I haven’t done anything yet.” Ash raised his hands.

  “That’s not a no I won’t do it.” Sheetal grumbled.

  “Well anyway, this is stupid. Because I can’t float across a battlefield. I can barely cover ten feet.” Ash complained.

  “Whose the Floaty McFloat Face now?” Sheetal responded in a mocking tone.

  Ash worked his jaw and blurted out “Also, the jewellery is stupid.”

  “Actually, the jewellery is the only thing in this setup which is on target.”

  Both Ash and Sheetal looked at Ghost with disbelief on their faces.

  Ghost wiped the holo projection of and replaced it with a human. The human’s body turned transparent his shards became visible. Their glow made a coloured line bisecting the torso. Even so, the light from the glow bathed the ascended from inside out.

  “This is what we call a pillar. Every shard in the pillar creates what you would call photonic vibrations to create a shield around you. Precious metals like gold, osmium, palladium etc. bridge the gap between the shards to make your shield impermeable.” Ghost explained and then looked at the two warders “And unlike us, you both can slot in shards in the dozens. And that is why I don’t know how to help you in choosing your next shards, and find metals to create jewellery.”

  Ash shrugged as they came to a stop “Meh. I’ll just pick the once that glitter the best for us.”

  Sheetal gave Ash a look and stopped when Ghost held up his hand “Ash maybe on the right track lady warder. He can see things we can’t.”

  Sheetal stopped and looked at Ash who was giving Ghost a flat look.

  Ghost smiled and continued “But I think we will have better advice soon.”

  Ash pointed a finger at Ghost “You are scheming again. She, he is scheming again.”

  Aaya leaned back on her heels and pursed her lips. Her first inclination when she entered this torture chamber was to burn everything down. Now that she had observed that the warders were safe, she wasn’t going to be so hasty. Also, after witnessing the interaction inside she wasn’t sure if that was the right move.

  She tapped her lip with her finger and noted that the female soldiers had approached her while she was thinking.

  “Arbiter, may I assist you?” Needles asked with trepidation in her voice.

  Aaya looked at the woman with pursed green lips “May I know your purpose here?”

  Needles hesitated “I am their medical physician.”

  Aaya blinked and relaxed. No wonder the light had touched her and approved. She looked at the other soldiers and asked “And them?”

  “They are my squad. We all…” Needles paused trying to wrestle her emotions back in control. Needles nodded at the pods “They saved us and we tried to save them cack. We were too late.”

  Aaya exhaled “It’s not too late but I need to observe them in silence for now. Would you be kind enough to make sure I am not disturbed.”

  Needles nodded and shouted “JJ. Make sure the lady arbiter is not disturbed.”

  Aaya saw one of the large soldiers detach himself from the group. Her eyes drifted to Olimani who was looking more and more aghast with every passing moment and then back at the man who was walking to them with thudding footsteps. She nodded at both the soldiers and put her fingers back on the pod.

  The warders were now in a large living room with warm leather sofas and a fireplace crackling on the side. The two warders were arguing with each other while the man named Ghost was watching with an amused look on his face.

  “What’s the problem? What’s the problem!? The problem is that I can’t comb my hair.” Sheetal screamed at Ash.

  “She, don’t you get it. You are awesome.”

  “What’s that got to do with anything with the comb hurting my strands?”

  Ash groaned “She…”

  “What!?”

  “This is not real. I have more strands than you. Do you think I comb my hair? Heck, I don’t even take a bath until I want to relax.”

  Sheetal grimaced “Ew.”

  “Not real, She. Also, I smell like Miss Dior all the time. I like smelling like Miss Dior.”

  “Again Ash. What has that got to do with my tangled hair?”

  Ash blew out a breath “Just believe you are awesome, and they will be awesome with you.”

  Sheetal gave Ash a look and turned to Ghost “Can you believe this nonsense?”

  Ghost chuckled “Oh, I have been struggling with this for far longer than you, lady warder. You brother here has an unwavering confidence in himself. That has given him the ability to manipulate my domain. And since my domain is more or less a mental construct. It gives him an advantage.”

  “Why does she get to be lady warder and I get to be just Ash?” Ash asked but the other two ignored him.

  “Did you say mental construct?” Sheetal asked

  Ghost hesitantly answered “Yes.”

  “Is that why you don’t like it when I…”

  Ghost cut Sheetal off with a nod and answered “Yes.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yes.” Ghost sighed.

  “Does that mean I can use my mental shard to wash my hair.”

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Do you believe your hair will come out perfect after you do that?” Ghost responded with a chuckle.

  Sheetal frowned and shot Ash an annoyed look.

  Ash rolled his eyes and, in a blur of speed, massaged Sheetal scalp in a blur with a curt “Here. Happy?”

  “Wha…? Huh?” Sheetal gave Ash an annoyed look and stopped.

  She touched her hair that had been tangled just a moment before and looked at Ash in awe “How?”

  “I am awesome.” Ash said emphatically.

  “God’s. Actually, you know what?” Sheetal looked at Ash with a cunning smile.

  “What?” Ash leaned back

  “You are my hairdresser now.”

  “Oh, crap.” Ash grimaced.

  Ghost cleared his throat “Now that we are on the subject of strands. You should now that they will become more sensitive each passing day. I have sped up the dreamscape even more to give you time to acclimatise to the changes.”

  “Thank you, Ghost.” Sheetal smiled.

  “Yeah, and that has nothing to do with the fact that you are using the bug energy to take over everything.” Ash scoffed.

  “Do you disapprove?” Ghost asked pointedly.

  Ash grumbled incoherently and then growled “I am just tired of you winning.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up kid. I have been planning all of this for three decades.” Ghost chuckled.

  “Yeah, that’s not what I am worried about. What I am afraid of is what you are going to do next.”

  “You are right, this is just the first step.”

  “I hate you, Ghost.” Ash harrumphed.

  Ash chuckled and looked at Sheetal with a difficult expression.

  “What is it, Ghost?” Sheetal asked.

  “Outside, the dreamscape. You will… There… Faded gods this is harder than I thought it will be.”

  “What’s going on Ghost?” Sheetal asked in whisper.

  Ghost gave Sheetal a meaningful look and started again “I am going to do this clinically.”

  “Okay.”

  “When you level up shard it releases energy in your body. That energy is used by your body to improve it until it reaches a state that could be called ideal. You are right now separated from your bodies. And your bodies are practically brand new. When you get out of here. Your will find your skin to be more sensitive. And all of your senses to be new and you will more prone to external stimuli. And certain drives of the biological variety will need attention.”

  Slowly the meaning of the words dawned on Sheetal, and she blushed.

  “What does that even mean?” Ash asked.

  “It means, you know what happened to you when you levelled up your shards? Well, that’s going to happen to us.”

  “We are going to be down bad?” Ash asked in curiosity.

  “Really bad.” Ghost nodded.

  “How bad? Like a N.N.N. bad or normal down bad?”

  “N.N.N.? Ghost asked.

  “No nut November.” Ash answered.

  Sheetal shook her head “Ignore him. He is talking about a niche practice from our world mostly relegated to the always online crowd.”

  Ghost nodded “Link culture.”

  “Oh… Do you have internet. Can I get some in here?” Ash asked.

  “Anyways. About this state, maybe we can take care of it ourselves?” Sheetal asked hopefully.

  “No. You will need a considerable amount of… Attention. Expert attention, while you get your biological drives in order.” Ghost fiddled with his collar trying to avoid eye contact.

  “Why does everyone keep ignoring me?” Ash asked.

  Ghost continued “I have asked for Daka and Dakini to visit. They reached here before the rak assault started. They are waiting in my quarters and they will take care of your needs when you exit.”

  “Daka? What are those?” Sheetal asked.

  “They are professionals who specialise in acclimatising ascended.”

  “Wait. Are you telling me we are going to get laid?” Ash grinned “Finally. I have almost forgotten what it feels like.”

  “Ah…” Sheetal hesitated.

  “Yeah, I know you never knew what it felt like.” Ash chuckled.

  “I will kill you.”

  “She. We are going laid. So laid.” Ash turned to Ghost with eager eye “When? Can we go now?”

  In response Ghost just disappeared.

  “Hey. Come back here. You can’t just tease us like that and poof out of existence.”

  “Oh, thank the gods it not now. I need some time…”

  Ash suddenly whirled and looked right at Aaya.

  “Ash?” Sheetal asked.

  “What the…”

  Aaya took her hand of the pod and blinked. She knew that hiding herself from the adjudicator was impossible. But the young warder? He wasn’t even class one. And she had been using her shadow shard to obscure herself.

  However he had done that wasn’t important right now. What was important was that, the two warders were safe and stable. They were also treating the man, the adjudicator, as a father figure. And by the awkwardness she witnessed, Ghost was had similar feeling towards the two.

  “Lady Aaya this is bad.”

  Aaya hadn’t noticed Olimani approach before he spoke.

  Aaya turned to look at the young Aranyaani and pointed at the pod in front of her “Olimani, there are two warders swimming in anathemic waters. Bad doesn’t begin to cover what ever this is.”

  Olimani hesitated and then blurted his question out “What if it was sanctioned by the Light?”

  Aaya stopped and looked at everyone around her “Explain.”

  One by one the pieces came together, and Aaya felt a sharp thread of fear enter her being. Her initial idea of burning everything down needed to be rejected completely. Her mind churned. This was unprecedented.

  Warders were supposed to fight against anathema, not be off it. And yet the Khara and the adjudicator had made them in the image of the enemy. And the Light approved it with an event.

  “Ash and sand.” Aaya muttered and then looked at Olimani “Arbiter Olimani, join me in observing the warders. I might need you when I announce our presence.”

  “First, he locks us in here. Then he wants to micromanage us. Then he wasn’t us not to leave. Then he teases us with sex. And now he wants us to take a train ride?”

  Sheetal rolled her eyes. This sulky side of Ash was driving her mad.

  “She, I am telling you. You need to go whoosh with your brain and grab everything.”

  Sheetal groaned “Why?”

  “So, that I can punch him.” Ash smacked his fist in his palm.

  “No. Not why you want me to do all that. Why am I in the same car as you are.” Sheetal complained.

  “Because I will follow you wherever you go.” Ash stated in matter of fact tone.

  Sheetal looked up and screamed “Ghost?”

  In response the sleek train floating over the ground came to a stop. Sheetal didn’t wait and with a loud huff shot out of the futuristic transport.

  Ghost appeared in front of them with raised eyebrows.

  Ash looked at him and scowled “You!”

  Sheetal let out a frustrated scream and shot off in tornado of sand and gravel. Ash looked at her for a second and then at Ghost.

  “What did you do?” Ghost asked.

  “Annoyed her.”

  “Why?”

  Ash’s smirk disappeared and he looked at Ghost with cold eyes “Because I needed to speak to you in private.”

  “You know you could have asked.”

  “Yeah, well then, She would have been curious and I would have to start singing Nirma. Washing powder, Nirma again.” Ash snapped.

  “Is this about your…”

  “Eyes. Yes. Partially. It is also about her legs.” Ash took a step towards Ghost and asked “Is it the smoke person who is trying to stop her from feeling them or is it you?”

  Ghost took in a deep breath and let it out slowly “Dangit kid. Why are you so…” Ghost paused and started again “Sheetal, has never felt her legs. If she starts to feel them right now it will break her immersion inside the dreamscape, and she will be ejected.”

  “So, you are the one keeping her crippled.” Ash accused.

  “Yes. But not for long. We are almost at an end for all that I can teach you. You will have to go into the world and learn what you need to outside soon.”

  “Really?” Ash asked sarcastically “In my condition?”

  “Aren’t you awesome?” Ghost grinned.

  Ash stomped his foot on the ground and then again.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Kicking you.”

  “It’s not working.”

  “I hate you.” Ash kicked the ground one last time for good measure and stomped away in the other direction.

  Ghost looked at the people observing and asked “See what I have to deal with?”

  Ten minutes later, which was less than a blink of an eye for the arbiters observing they were all back together and Sheetal was following Ghost up a rocky hill while Ash brought up a rear for a while.

  Sheetal was still angry and had a tornado whizzing about her.

  Ash grumbled something indistinct.

  “What!?” Sheetal snapped.

  “I said can you stop blowing sand in my face?”

  Sheetal growled “Can you stop annoying me?”

  “For how long?” Ash cocked his head to the side.

  Sheetal stopped and looked at Ash “What’s going on? Why are you depressed.”

  “It’s nothing.”

  Ash shot Ghost a challenging glare. Daring him to contradict him and looked away with “Well, go ahead Ghost. Explain what that thing is and start your show.” Ash pointed at a creature that had just appeared out of nowhere.

  “Eeeek!” Sheetal shot back and squeaked.

  Suddenly there was two foot high and three legged spider like creature scampering up the rocky outcropping they had stopped on.

  “Not real dummy.” Ash snorted.

  Sheetal shot Ash a look and looked at the creature. On a closer glance, it only somewhat resembled a spider. Unlike the smooth carapace of real spider, this one’s was made out of a pitted stone. And wherever it put its feet down that ground melted with hissing pops like acid. Only leaving an oily substance behind. And oily substance Ash knew very well. Anathema.

  Sheetal watched the creature in horrified fascination as it clacked and clattered over the lose debris. It reached a large boulder and positioned itself facing the rock. In a smooth motion, it shot out a pincer hiding in its torso into the widest point of the boulder.

  Swick.

  A slight feather like sound was the only that the pincer impacting the stone made. A second later, a pulse went through the stone, and it was sucked. All that that was left in its place was an oily mess that was slowly burning through the ground.

  “That is a gatherer. They are like ants. They turning matter into that.” Ghost pointed at the creature and the tar like oil.

  “What just happened?” Sheetal looked at the hideous creature and the oil like substance.

  To call the creature a spider was inaccurate. Every creature on earth and even the trails was symmetrical. This thing wasn’t. It was a tripod every bit of it looked like it had been hobbled together. Sheetal felt a sharp revulsion and instinctively scooted a few back from the thing.

  “Is it made of stone?” Sheetal finally asked.

  “No. It is a form of chiton. We believe it is created like that so that it can be consumed alongside its payload easily.”

  “Consumed?” Sheetal asked.

  “I will come back to that. First look at its top half. It has no head.” Ghost pointed at the creature.

  The top part of the creature ended in rough dark chiton. Some portions where rounded and others were sharp. But none of them looked damaged. The torso that connected the legs wasn’t black. In contrast, the torso was a brown and a cross between an octagon on one side and a square on the other. All that was covered with a flat disk.

  “That means that it has no weak for you to exploit on the top. You can’t one shot this thing. Instead, you have to shoot it in the torso. Which is thin and hard to target on its own but also aided by the eyes on the legs.”

  Sheetal felt an urge to exterminate this thing when she looked at the eyes. Revulsion bubbled up in her core and she felt anger follow it. What it had just done could be allowed. Sheetal looked at the gatherer’s eyes. It had weeping eyes. Once again, they were interspersed everywhere without rhyme or reason. Some were on the top of its legs. Other were placed midway. One was even close to the ground and looked blinded. The pincer it had just dislodged was beginning to get sucked in to its carapace when Sheetal raised her hand to wipe the thing out of reality.

  “Careful.” Ghost said while steading Sheetal floating form.

  Sheetal shook her head. The spider thing, it was lying broken on the ground. It’s limbs were torn apart in chunks. It carapace was lodged into ground vertically. And they were all letting out wisps of light in the air alongside inky anathema.

  Sheetal felt her brain jolt and her anger took the whole creature in at a glance and then grimaced as her brain overloaded with the information.

  Sheetal shook her head to clear it and repeated her earlier question “What just happened?”

  “You used your ability.” Ash who was now standing next to Sheetal answered. He looked at her to make sure she was okay and buzzed away.

  Ghost nodded “I told you not to use your abilities in here. The dreamscape can’t take it and it will eject you.” Ghost chided.

  Racial Ability - Glance.

  Type – Danav

  Let’s you assess a foe’s weakness and strengths at a glance, allowing your attack extra damage.

  “Sorry, it kind of happened on its own.” Sheetal panted.

  “Are you okay?” Sheetal nodded andl pointed at the creature standing at pause in front of them “How did it turn stone into oil?”

  Ghost sighed “Gatherers are dangerous pests. They turn matter into crude anathema to take it back to what are people call unreality or the anti universe. They excrete phased matter into solids that binds with the light, which they feed on. The feeding process leaves behind anathema that is spoiled by the residual matter. That burrows into the ground and creates tears through which more of these creatures pop out. That is why anathemic creatures are a scourge on reality.”

  “So, bugs be bad?” Ash asked from the small flat boulder he was sitting on.

  Ghost rolled his eyes “The gatherers are just carriers. They consume only a portion of light. Most of it they take to the worm for refinement. We will come to the worm later. But right now look to its right.”

  Sheetal turned to see a much larger spider clattering towards them.

  “That is a soldier. They protect the gatherers. And since you killed that one… This one is here to investigate.”

  The insectoid creature scampered up the rocky outcropping. This one was twice as large as the gatherer and had four legs. Its pincer was not hidden inside its body but attached to its upper half like a turret. Its eyes had an animalistic intelligence compared to the dull look of the previous one. It used those eyes to look at them. The creature swiftly turned and focussed in on Ash who was sitting on a rock and pretending to sulk.

  The top of the soldier’s disk rotated independent of it legs. The turret like pincer aimed at Ash. The flat disk on top pulsed with a slight glow and a fire ball shot out towards Ash.

  Ash dramatically sighed and raised a pebble in his palm. His fingers flicked the rock towards the fire ball. The fireball and the pebble made contact.

  Whup.

  With a sharp sound the fireball was sucked out of existence.

  Ghost gave Ash a hard stare.

  “Bravo kid. That was smooth. You are getting better with glyphs.” Ash congratulated himself.

  Ghost narrowed his eyes and Sheetal felt a spike of sharp annoyance from Ash.

  “What is it kid?” Ghost asked with raised eyebrows.

  Ash scowled and put the book he was reading down “You know exactly what it is.”

  “Why don’t you just spill it out?”

  “First, I don’t want to trust Ghost. You do everything wrong for the right reason. That is just annoying. Pick a lane man. Do you want to be good or bad? By the gods man you even lost your life because you couldn’t make a choice. Also, your vision for continuum sucks.”

  “What?” Ghost took offence at the last sentence.

  “Yeah, you heard me. Your honour based system sucks.”

  “It’s called Timocracy. It enabled the ones with honour, property and ambition to hold power and serve our people.”

  Ash scoffed “It’s stupid. You can’t have faith in people. You don’t put faith in order. And you don’t put faith in authority. They were all tools to keep you in check.”

  “So, what do you put faith in?”

  “Myself.” Ash paused and pointed a finger at Sheetal “And her.”

  Sheetal wasn’t surprised at the outburst. Ash wasn’t a communist like his mother, a secular democrat from a democratic country, or an aristocrat like his predecessors. Her little brother was a nihilist. He believed that life was meaningless. The world was meaningless. And nobody gave a damn about anything. And if someone did, he would be sent to deal with them. And that is why his crazy little head was having a hard time accepting Ghost as a friend.

  Ghost shook his head and asked “Would you really not care if the world burned you?”

  “As long as it doesn’t touch mine, no.”

  “And what if it did?”

  “Then I will burn right back.”

  Ghost chuckled “And that is why I like you.”

  Ghost, liked that? That circular depressive way of thinking scared Sheetal. The only comfort she felt way that Ash was too much of a narcissist to go down without a massive explosion. Sheetal always saw mushroom clouds when Ash was thinking about death. It was not perfect but if Ash thought that dying in anything else than a nuclear explosion was ignoble, then it was strangely comforting.

  Still, it was a hard way to live. And Sheetal knew needed to make him trust people more. His upbringing and the constant series of betrayals he had faced in life made it extremely hard.

  But whatever his issue was with Ghost, this time was different. She could feel the simmering anger bubbling from him. She almost got a feeling that Ghost had gotten one up on Ash again and now the little tyrant was throwing a tantrum.

  “Okay. I have had enough.” Sheetal finally said and asked “What happened between you two?”

  “Nirma! Washing powder Nirma…”

  Sheetal flinched and turned away from Ash. She looked at Ghost.

  “Your brother doesn’t want me to share that with you.” Ghost answered.

  “Okay, fine. Whatever this is can wait.” Sheetal glared at the two men “We came here for instruction, so Ghost continue with that and let’s leave the politics for some other day. And you” Sheetal pointed at Ash “Stop it with that jingle. If you don’t I will smash your head open to see if I can fix that freak brain of yours.”

  Ghost bowed slightly “Yes, lady warder.”

  Sheetal frowned when Ghost smirked.

  Sheetal shook her head “And Ghost please hurry it up. I am very close to making a plasma torpedo and I want to crack it within the next few days.”

  Ghost gave Sheetal a sharp look “Sheetal, you are not ready with that.”

  “No, but you are, and you are going to help me.”

  “I suggest you don’t until you…”

  Ghost trailed off when he saw the look on Sheetal face and waved his hand “Fine.”

  The gatherer’s pieces and the soldier spider anomaly that had paused mid battle disappeared. The rock cropping along with the dripping oil like substance evaporated. And in its place an open mining pit appeared. At the centre of the open of the pit something large wiggled and shot out. Speeding across the walls scooping in large mouthfuls of the oily residue flowing down from the edge of the pit.

  “That is the worm.” Ghost explained “And these are the three anomalies you will face in the sinkhole if you go to Kapasura.”

  Sheetal recoiled back from the edge of the pit. Ash on the other hand scooted forwards on all fours with his eyes locked onto the speeding worm.

  “Is that…?”

  “The worm.” Ghost nodded.

  “No. No. Inside that thing. Is that? Ash asked in a high pitched voice.

  “Yes.” Ghost smiled.

  Ash looked at Ghost and grinned “So, this is the dirty little secret behind all the powerplay in the trails.”

  Ghost chuckled “Who says it is a secret?”

  Sheetal shook her head “I don’t get it. So, it is a disgusting large worm? One we will have to kill. But what is so special about that.”

  “Why you have to kill it is what is so special about it.” Ghost replied.

  “Ghost, stop talking to Ash. You are beginning to sound like him.”

  Ghost flinched as if he had been struck. He looked at Ash and frowned. Ash frowned back at the older man.

  Ghost turned back to Sheetal “I am sorry. The worm. It is like a processing farm. It processes light and takes it to the beyond. That means…”

  “Anathema and shards.” Ash couldn’t take it and yelled “It is full of anathema and shards, She. We need to kill it, and juice it, and drink it.”

  Sheetal gagged slightly “Why would we want to do that?”

  “Do you want to do the glance thing without toppling over?”

  Sheetal blinked at looked at the worm retreating into the hole. She opened her mouth and just floated there.

  Ash grinned “Yeah, She. We will kill it and bathe in its blood.”

  Sheetal looked at the four foot ten, skinny, effeminate boy with pink lipstick, a glitter top and mini skirt.

  “Bathe in its blood?” She asked.

  “Just drinking anathema would do too. It just need to be pure.” Ghost clarified.

  Sheetal controlled her gag reflex “I am not in favour of consuming worm juice.”

  “Oh, come on. It’s not that bad. Smell it. It smells like jam.” Ash pointed at the open faced mine.

  Sheetal leaned in and sniffed. Ash was only partially right. It didn’t smell like jam. It smelled like spiced berry preserve. She could smell the earthy cinnamon and the tart smell of the fruit. It was tantalising enough to make her mouth water.

  Sheetal gave the anathemic mine another look and saw the train like worm that had just disappeared into the hole. And now she understood why Ghost had insisted on the train ride. He wanted them to understand the scale of the thing.

  “It’s huge.” Sheetal stated

  “And we are awesome.”

  “It’s fast.”

  “You shoot sticky fire.”

  “It’s called a plasma torpedo and I don’t know how to do it properly.”

  “Why are you so insistent about using plasma.” Ghost asked.

  “It’s from Stargate. There is this spaceship called Organisation and it that shoots balls of death and conquers civilisation in the name of exploration.” Ash explained in faced motone voice and turned to Sheetal with an eager look.

  “It’s Star Trek and no. They use those torpedoes to defend themselves.” Sheetal corrected Ash.

  “Whatever She. Listen you can use your vacuum cleaner powers to drag it back by its tail and we can shoot at it.”

  Sheetal looked at Ash aghast and pointed at the pit “But… It’s… Ah!”

  “Yeah, She, that’s what it’s going to say when it meets us.” Ash grinned.

  “Will you let me finish?” Sheetal gave Ash a frustrated look and turned to Ghost “What do you think?”

  “Pits like these are the reason that people come to the trails. They want the shards and more importantly the anathema from the anomalies. Even though the anathema is toxic. It melts anyone who touches it. Those who can withstand its touch for more than a second suffer spontaneous mutations. That is why the continnum covers itself with null armour.”

  “Null armour?”

  “Yes, Sheetal. Our armour is made from anathemic metals. But should you go in there?” Ghost paused “Not without backup. Every break in reality is teaming with ascendeds and warders. They are all there to gather anathema. Because if you pour anathema over a normal weapon like a steel blade turns into aluminium magnesium alloy. Pour it over a soul weapon and it changes to whatever the wielder wants. Pour it over quartz and it might turn into mozz. Pour it over lead and it might turn into…”

  “Gold?”

  “No, titanium. Why would you want to turn anything into gold. It’s pretty but useless unless you are mounting stones in it.”

  “Changes?” Ash asked and quickly looked away “Wait I don’t want to know. I am not talking to you.”

  Sheetal sighed out loud and asked “How is that even possible? We are talking about different elements and alloy bonds.”

  Ghost shrugged “It’s anathema.”

  “It’s yummy.” Ash said from the other side.

  Ghost looked at Ash and then back at Sheetal “The pits are a favourite of mental sharders and soul strengtheners. Mentalist are frowned upon in polite society but honestly, these two types of ascendeds are the only way to combat anathema’s warping effect. And since these two types of ascenders come from noble families, there is politics.”

  Ash scoffed “No there is politics because anathema is a resource. People want that resource, and they are willing to fight for it. And fighting for it causes deaths that makes the damn oil prices to shoot up.” He smiled and rubbed his hands together “But they are lucky because I am going to put a stop to it all. The deaths, the crying families, the orphaned children because I am going to take it all from everyone.”

  “Ash…”

  “Give him a moment Ghost. He is not done yet.” Sheetal stooped their instructor.

  Ash with a dreamy look in his eyes continued “I am going to drink it in front of them. Then they going to come to me and beg, no Ash, don’t drink it all. Please leave some for us. And I will be like of course. I am a gracious guy. But only if you can get me a designer skirt. And when you do say… Ash is awesome.”

  Sheetal rolled her eyes and ignored Ash’s fantasy.

  Ghost sighed “Ash… Kid, you can’t drink it all.”

  “Why?”

  Ghost pointed at the hole “Because that monster there is larger than your stomach.”

  Ash was silent for a moment and then whined “But, I can try.”

  Ghost continued “No, you will drink the anathema, as much of it as you need and leave the rest for others to gather.”

  Ash squinted at Ghost and stomped his foot “I am not talking to you.”

  Before he could respond Sheetal asked “What is this about needing anathema?”

  Ash waved a hand dismissively and then pointed at Sheetal “You know when you do that glary thing and then wobble?”

  “It’s called glance, Ash. And I don’t wobble.”

  “Yeah, whatever. You do that because you don’t have enough anathema.”

  Sheetal turned to look at Ghost for an affirmation.

  Ghost turned his hand back and forth “He is not entirely incorrect. Your new race is mutation caused by anathema. It needs to complete that mutation to stabilise. Also, you are immune to anathemic effects.”

  Flash!

  Needles appeared with two people. One was a middle aged woman and the other one was a the warders age. Their skin had a greenish hue that stood out in front of the others.

  “That is heresy!” A stern middle aged woman stated emphatically.

  “What? Which part?” Ash asked “I mean I like the word heresy. It’s such cool word. So, green woman, I will need clarification on that.”

  “Ash, you don’t even know what that word means.” Sheetal looked at the newcomers with narrowed eyes.

  “Of course I do.” Ash bit his thumb.

  “No, what you are thinking of is blasphemy.” Sheetal responded.

  “Arbiters.” Ghost greeted the two newcomers and bowed “Welcome to my dreamscape.”

  Aaya bowed slightly “Adjudicator. The warders’ races, whatever they are, weren’t caused by anathemic mutation. They were brought forth by lights blessings.”

  Ghost shrugged “I am not going to fight with you on that point arbiter. The fact is that the warders are anathemic individuals and they need it.”

  “Something that should have never come to.” Olimani shot back and turned to Aaya “We should take the warders with us and leave for Solace.”

  “Hold on a minute green guy. You don’t make the rules around here.” Ash squared his chest and pointed at Sheetal “She does.”

  “We all need to calm down.” Ghost said in calming tone.

  “Uh!” Sheetal grunted.

  “Ow.” Ash said at the same time.

  A sense of loss weakened both the warders momentarily and one after the other they fell on the ground.

  Ghost was there a second later checking on the warders “What’s wrong?”

  “Freaking cowards.” Ash grunted.

  “They left.” Sheetal raised a finger and flicked a notification at everyone around her.

  Bonds Dissolved.

  Your team, squad, party, or people have abandoned you.

  Your ties have been cut to them.

  Fight warder and rise beyond your mortal ties.

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